Date

September 20, 2023

Description

Tom Gell and Will Beaton (Chief of Staff at Notpla, formerly Head of Ops at MyTutor) chat about: • Why is data protection important to your business? • Where do you get started? What types of policies and practices do you put in place first? • What are some of the common challenges faced at Series B and beyond?

Details

By Operations Nation and Trust Keith

Speakers

Over the months of working with our Community Partners at Trust Keith to help us untangle the mysteries of data protection, we realised that as a company evolves, so does its data - and so does our job, since it's usually up to ops people to keep adapting and figure out how best to handle data protection management.

Based on your feedback about these events, we realised it would be great to have some sessions where folks from different funding stages can gather to discuss common challenges.

Our guest speaker:

Will Beaton

Will is the Chief of Staff at Notpla, formerly head of Ops at MyTutor

Our moderator:

Tom Gell

Tom is the Director of Customer Experience and Lead Data Protection Officer at Trust Keith

About Trust Keith:

Tom and the Trust Keith team specialise in making data protection simple, easy, and even enjoyable.
They help tech scale-ups become and stay data-compliant by providing a dedicated data protection expert backed up by software.
Their customers include multiple community members like Thriva, Learnerbly, MyTutor, GoCertify, Unitary, Maji, and more.
Trust Keith is a Bronze Sponsor of Operations Nation, which means that not only do they help us stay data compliant, but they have also partnered up with us to help save you from the over-complicated world of data protection. If you ever need any advice, you can always find Tom lurking away in the ON Community Slack workspace, ready to help. 🙌

Event Recording

Event Summary

Please note that this summary has been written by ChatGPT summarising the event transcript.

Overall, the discussion emphasised the importance of early and consistent integration of data protection measures into startup operations, while also highlighting the need for ongoing adaptation and refinement.

TrustKeith specialises in helping startups scale up while maintaining data protection.
Tom, Director of Customer Experience and DPO at TrustKeith, emphasises the importance of early implementation of data protection measures.
Challenges in Series B funding include extensive due diligence and the need for more robust policies with increased headcount and global presence.
Delegating responsibilities and empowering teams are crucial for efficient data protection.
Embedding data protection in company culture is vital for long-term success.
Getting buy-in from senior leadership involves framing data protection initiatives around company values and communicating the "why" behind it.
Reflecting on past experiences, Tom stresses the need to build strong foundations in data protection for handling growth.
Expectations from investors in Series B may include inquiries about records of processing, privacy notices, lawful basis, and risk assessments.
Progress over perfection is valued by investors, and startups should demonstrate awareness of areas needing improvement.
Balancing preparation with resource constraints is important in implementing realistic, achievable data protection measures.
Startups should avoid over-engineering data protection policies that may be challenging to adhere to at their current stage.
The overall emphasis is on a proactive, risk-based approach to data protection, compliance, and security in business operations.